Thursday, April 25, 2013

So I’d like to brag a little today, to my surprise when I came home on Tuesday and I checked the mail I received a letter from Grand Canyon (that is the University that I am enrolled in) it was a letter that said that because of my grades I have made it to the dean’s list. I’m really proud of myself and have decided to make it my goal to keep staying on that list. I just started going back to school this past October. It was a decision that I kept fighting with but knew that I needed to do it so that when my daughter gets older she knows the importance of school. I’m working really hard to try and get the best grade possible so it’s important for me to focus on homework and participation. I’m trying to work out a schedule where I can still blog and do school at the same time. So wish me luck with my scheduling. lol

Sunday, April 21, 2013

I've been playing around with my blog for a while and I still haven't picked the font I want, so here is a new one. So anyway this weekend it was a really nice weekend in Arizona before 12pm that is, after 12 it becomes hot. On Saturday I went to my moms like I always do and it was really nice all the kiddos from my side of the family were there and they were all playing together. I was asked about the prickly pear and when was it good to harvest. Well, spring time is when they come out, you want to get the ones that are just coming out )the babies) they are a dark green and thin, the light green thick ones are not good to eat. Here is a picture so that you could see the difference.

Remember when cutting down the prickly pear it is very important to be careful because of the stickers.

So today I want to show you how to make Mexican Rice. Mexican rice is a tomato base rice that will go good with any meal. Plus it is really easy to make and requires only a few ingredients. This recipe makes enough for about 4 to 5 people.

Ingredients

4 cups of rice

2 tomatoes

1 quarter onion

3 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons of cooking oil

Salt (to your liking)

1. Let the rice sit in water for about half and hour then rinse.

2.Add oil to a deep medium size pan and heat the pan at medium heat.

3. Pour the rinsed rice into the pan and be sure to be stirring the rice so that the rice is fried evenly.

Here is what your rice should look like when you pour it in to fry.

4. While you are frying the rice blend together the tomatoes, garlic, and onion.

5. Once your rice has turned a golden color you pour in the blended liquid and stir so that it hits all of the rice.

As you can see here the rice now is a golden color.

When you pour in the blended liquid don't forget to stir.

﻿

﻿

6. After you add the blended liquid add four more cups of water.

﻿

7. Let it sit while cooking in low heat until all the water is absorbed. It should turn a fire red color once it is done.

And your done!!!

Yummy Mexican Rice!!! Thank you mom for another awesome recipe!!

Don't forget if you have any questions about making the rice you can comment, facebook me, or even twitter me!!! :)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

So as you know we have been working on our house a lot. Our kitchen has actually been a work in progress since we moved in two years ago but today I’d like to share with you what I would really love to have in my kitchen with the help of Pinterest of course!

First thing I LOVE coffee, I don’t know how I came to love it but just the smell and the fact that it exists makes my mornings. Coffee + me = LOVE so I of course am putting a coffee bar in my kitchen this is my inspiration and I would love to have something close to this.

My second must have is an apron sink, I just love love love these sinks, I love the vintage look so I told my husband something I would love to do to the house is put in wood flooring.

My third must have is a double oven, I don’t know why I have always had a fascination with double ovens but I feel that if I get one then I will be baking all the time and I love baking!

Well those are my must have in the kitchen thought I’d post about this because its a work in progress and I can dream right, I do want to make it happen especially the coffee bar. Well until next time!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Today I came over to my mom’s house to spend the night because Hubby went on a Mini Vacy with his family to Las Vegas. Unfortunately I work on Monday and its state testing week at work. Here in Arizona they call it AIMS. Any who I wanted to do my first tutorial today and its a recipe with LOTS of pictures. Its called Ensalada de Chicarron which is Chicarron Salad in English it is a Mexican Recipe so if you want some real AUTHENTIC Mexican food here it is my family is originally from Mexico City we moved here in 1993 so most of the recipes I’ll share will be Mexican.

Ingridents

Chicarron (Fried Pork Rinds) about half a pound you can get these at a Hispanic grocery store in Arizona we have Food City, Ranch Market, and the local Carnicerias I have not seen these at Fry's, Wal-Mart or any regular chain grocery stores.

Nopales (Prickly Pear) They do sell these in local Grocery stores sometimes they are peeled but most of the time they are not so it is very important that you need to peel these before you cook and eat

Half an Onion

4 Garlic cloves

3 whole Tomatoes

1 bunch of Cilantro

2 avocados

3 to 4 Serrano Chiles depending on how spicy they are or how you would like your dish to be spicy wise

Salt

Olive Oil

1. Crush the Chicarron (Fried Pork Rinds)

2. Peel the Nopales (Prickly Pear)

Remember its really important to peel the whole prickly pear it needs to look like this below

3. Dice and rinse the nopales

4. Boil the nopales with a quarter onion, 4 garlic cloves, and 1 table spoon of salt for about 30 min after boiling is done rinse the nopales through cold water.

5. Dice the tomatoes, the left over onion, 2 avocados, 2 – 3 Serrano Chiles, and the cilantro

6. Add the rinsed off nopales and mix 1 teaspoon of olive oil, a dash of salt, squeeze the whole lemon and chicarron and mix.

Ready enjoy by itself or with tortillas as tacos!!!!

Thank you for joining me with my first tutorial with the help of my mom of course! Thanks mom!!!!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

So today I started my food challenge, in my food challenge I am challenging myself to make food at home everyday as many days as I can. When you work full time and leave the house at 6 am and come home at 4:30pm the last thing that you want to do is make food, I’m not saying that this is an excuse but I get home and the last thing I want to do is make food. So I’m challenging myself to make dinner everyday for the next two weeks, also make lunch for work. This will be one of my toughest challenges yet. Today I made salmon with steam veggies and mash potatoes (already off to a great start!). It took me a total of 45 minutes to make dinner. While I was making dinner I watched Modern family and fed my daughter. So wish me luck for the next two weeks in hopes that I will be able to make food at home.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

So first I’d like to talk about what I had for dinner, now I’m from Mexico City and finding real authentic Mexico City food is hard but I have found a place that is really good. When I say really good it’s really good, now you ask what is the difference between Mexico CIty food and other Mexican food. Well like here in the United States each state has their own plates so does Mexico. Like when we first came to the United States we learned about the burrito here, now that was 20 years ago so I’m sure that it’s not like that anymore an burritos are known in Mexico City more. Anyway finding some good Mexican food is hard but this place is the Bomb! Its called La Tortotota and I swear I could eat there everyday. I always have the Machete which is like a quesadilla only better!! Now on to my grab button I made my first one but I don’t know if I did it right hopefully I did lol it took me a long time. So check it out!

Monday, April 8, 2013

I swear AZ is crazy with its weather, my husband has been stressed out so much today because of it. We have high winds of 50 mph which in the morning he was afraid that the block fence would fall over, thankfully it didn’t and it just began raining. To top things off we’re draining our pool today with the rain ironic isn’t it. There is so much work to do for the house I’m really starting to feel it in my pocket I feel like I can’t spend any money at all and payday can’t come any sooner. It will all be worth it in the end, with the block fence up I can start with my garden if it’s not too hot I’ll probably start with something easy because I’ve never done it before. Then our garage is almost done so I can start making my workshop for my upholstery/sewing projects I got this really cool idea from Grosgrain regarding a table that folds over from the wall from Ikea, I don’t plan to buy the table but instead make a slightly bigger one with the help of my dad. You’ll see me mentioning my dad because he is skillful in almost ANYTHING I swear I think I’ll dedicate a post to him and all his skills. Anyway so hopefully all these things will get done soon and I can start my endless lists of projects.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

I’ll admit it was a long day but well worth it! Look at how my blog looks now I’m excited it so cute! It took a lot mind work what looks good? what looks bad? what needs to move? what needs to stay.? I just kept on questioning my self but finally I got it how I really want it. I got my background from Shabby Blogs I love their backgrounds they are so cute plus they’re free! I still need to create the buttons that go on the side but that’s still a work in progress. The first thing I did when I got on my computer was finished my homework today was the last day of my critical thinking class, and tomorrow I start a English 105. School has been going really fast and for that I’m really excited! I can’t wait to get my degree and become a high school history teacher ( hopefully) Then after I did that I began to work on my blog I signed up for different social networks (twitter and instagram) I read that I need to be very proactive so that’s exactly what I’m doing. I redid my header and put a new description, while this blog is still about my many adventures with my tiny family I needed a description that makes sense lol. And I did this all outside because today my husband his dad and few other family members came to put up the block fence. I’ve been out here since 10 am! Thank goodness that it is really nice outside, its one of the last days that it will be like this in Arizona. But as you can see its almost there. I'm excited because that means almost starting the project of my garden I know it’s a little late in the year but I’m going to be making a shade over it because of the Arizona sun and its going to be a lifted garden so the project itself will be long. Well until next time.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

So today I have been trying to set up my blog trying different backgrounds, putting a new header its a lot of work. I'm still learning new things and reading a lot of information but I have decided to really have a go at this and invest time into my blog. I used to just make one and I'd forget about it but now I really want to try and invest time and make it really good. I'm really into the Shabby Chic look because I really like that style so I'm trying to create stuff with that, unfortunately I don't have photoshop on my computer but hopefully I will soon. On another note I decided to take a break and go get myself a boba. So delicious! I get is from this place Bomboba it recently opened literally 2 minutes away from our house. The sign came up when I was pregnant and I was hoping to get some during my pregnancy but no such luck. Well its hear now and I tell you I get it all the time, that's how much I love it. LOL

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Since we just bought all the block for our future fence I decided to start planning my garden. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while now but since the block fence isn’t up I haven’t really been able to do it. So here is the part of my back yard that I want to put my garden in.As you can see I still have the wooden fence what I would like to do is use that wood to become the front of my fence to the entrance of my garden. I found this really cool place called Porter Barn Wood they sell a lot of vintage materials because the entrance I also want to put a door and some vintage windows. Later on I’ll post an idea of how I want it but I did draw the set up I want for my garden.I don’t know yet all exactly what I want to plan but I know for sure that tomatoes will be one of them. I will of course be request the help of my dad because he just know how to do everything! I just will have to bribe him with baby girl.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Today was kind of an eh kind of day, I had to leave work early because I needed to take baby girl to the doctor she gets a lot of diaper rashes but they get really bad really quick and I’ve tried everything. The doctor gives me a special diaper cream ointment and that really works for her so makes me happy makes baby girl happy. That was pretty much my excitement for the day. Oh also we went to Home Depot because we are currently building the walls in our back yard hurt my pockets that’s for sure. On another note I’m currently enrolled at Grand Canyon University to become a high school history teacher. I have all my classes online and so far I have been doing great! I love it because it works with my schedule working full time and being a new mom. I finish my critical thinking class this Sunday and I begin my new one on Monday. I’m really excited because I feel like this has been going so smoothly it really makes me feel awesome. So happy Wednesday everyone!Good night from baby girl and I…

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

I got my camera in the mail today! I am very excited to say that the deal I got was awesome I was only expecting 50 pictures and 100 came in. I'm going to be taking lots of pictures of Baby girl. Yesterday was Monday so to say the least it was the longest day of the week. *sigh* I'm trying to get on top of stuff but work has been to busy lightly its crazy. I can't wait till the summer I'm way excited for this year because it's my first summer with Baby girl I have so many things planned I just hope that I get to do them. I hope that we get to travel also but right now there are so many things that we are doing to the house that we're on a bit of a budget. I'm trying to figure out more ways to save money because I really do want to travel during the summer. What I would really like to do is visit my family in Mexico City, but I don't see that happening any time soon. I hope this week goes by fast I'm already ready for the weekend.